Pressure sensitive adhesive tapes bearing alphanumeric data are often used for industrial purposes to identify various objects such as electrical wires, pipe conduits, etc. This usage may require having available a number of rolls of tape, each bearing different identification data, such as a group of tapes having a printed series of sequential numbers or letters, in order that specific elements can each bear an individual identification marker. One example of this type of use is the marking of electrical wires with wiremarkers consisting of a strip of tape formed of a layer of plastic or cloth printed on one surface with sequential numerical data and bearing a layer of pressure sensitive adhesive on an opposite surface.
A worker may have to carry a set of rolls of tapes of this type which are preprinted with serial identification numbers, for example, 10 rolls of tape each bearing numbers 1 through 10. There has thus developed a demand in the marketplace for a tape dispenser that can hold a number of rolls of tape and which will allow a worker to withdraw a piece from any selected roll in order to identify a particular element. A multiple roll tape dispenser must provide for storing a number of rolls of tape and include cutting means for severing a selected portion from any roll of tape.
Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company presently markets a multiple roll tape dispenser constructed in accordance with its U.S. Pat. No. 4,262,835. In the 3m device, the rolls of tape are each supported vertically on a separate core and carried in an individual housing in a gang-type cylindrical dispenser. The rolls of tape are arranged so that their adhesive side will adhere to an arcuate door which is hinged over each tape compartment; opening of the arcuate door will withdraw a small portion of each roll of the tape which forms a tab a user can grasp and pull across a cutting edge in order to cut off the selected length of tape. Another style of multiple roll tape dispenser is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,252,258 and comprises a main housing divided into side-by-side cells, each to store a single roll of tape, a front wall having a series of ports through which each tape is led, and an L-shaped portion extending from the housing and including a cutting means for severing the tape and holding the free end of each tape after it has been cut.
It is my belief that the foregoing prior art tape dispensers adapted for handling a number of rolls of tape have structural and functional limitations which are disadvantageous. Both dispensers are bulky items because of the manner in which the rolls of tape are supported vertically in the dispensers. Also, the dispenser disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,252,258 is not structured so as to form a free end of the tape after severance which can be readily grasped by a user to facilitate the subsequent dispensing of tape. The dispenser of U.S. Pat. No. 4,262,835 provides an upstanding free end of tape which the user can grasp, but it is felt that the action by which the free end is developed with the dispenser requires a high degree of manipulation by the user, especially when it is desired to dispense several pieces of tape or several different tapes, thereby creating an inconvenient situation. Also, the dispenser is inconvenient with respect to allowing a user to quickly select a specific tape from the rolls of tapes housed in the dispenser. The multiple roll tape dispenser of my present invention was developed in order to overcome these and other deficiencies of the prior art multiple roll tape dispenser of which I am aware.